Since (and including) their eight-point loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 21, the Raptors are scoring 122.2 points per 100 possessions. Over that same span, no team is within five points of that (and yes, it is the Golden State Warriors in second place).

Since that same date, the Raptors are shooting a league-best 49.7 percent from 3-point range. Over that same span, no team is within eight percentage points of that (and yes, it is the Golden State Warriors in second).

And finally, since that same date, DeMar DeRozan’s usage percentage is down to 29.8 percent from 36.3 percent prior. His assists have gone from 5.9 per game over those last seven games after averaging 3.5 before. He is scoring 21.4 points per game in the last seven games, where he was at 31.4 in the 13 before them.

Clearly, this is a seismic shift in the way the Raptors are scoring, and winning. Obviously, DeRozan is seeing defences keying in on him even more than usual after his hot start, and making more decisive decisions, ones which are so often being rewarded with made 3-pointers from his teammates.

“They are sending extra bodies to DeMar,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said Monday morning, ahead of the Raptors game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. “They are helping on him, some teams are exaggerating and going ahead and trapping it and some are just sending longer helps and deeper help. That is happening and he is doing a good job of making sure he picks them apart. I'm not saying DeMar is a decoy, he's not a decoy by any means. But, he's doing a good job of making a play. Maybe getting a hockey assist, so, he is getting the ball out safely, which is the most important.”

So, the defence has reacted to DeRozan, and DeRozan has now reacted to the defence: fewer shots, more passes to shooters who are open because, at least in part, teams are guarding against DeRozan drives more than ever.

There is a logical question that follows: Would the Raptors’ opponents ever decrease their emphasis on stopping DeRozan in order to stay home on those shooters? That is a question that gets asked about LeBron James all of the time (and is often answered with “pick your poison”), but rarely about DeRozan. DeRozan’s ability to get to the free-throw line makes him an efficient scorer, but he is not a beast like James, who can get to the rim whenever he wants. And until the start to this year, DeRozan’s accuracy from the mid-range was never good enough to stop it at all costs.

However, even as DeRozan was tearing up the league, the Raptors were scoring only (this “only” is very, very relative; it was still third-best in the league during that span) 109.4 points per 100 possessions. It is fair to assume the Raptors’ 3-point shooting right now is totally unsustainable, and that 50 percent accuracy would probably fall to 40 over a long enough span. That would still leave those Raptors, however, as a slightly more efficient team than the one with DeRozan gunning.

Again, the question: will defences adjust to DeRozan’s adjustment over the course of a regular season, or does that type of tinkering only happen in the postseason?

“We're going to do some of the same things,” Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue said when asked if the Raptors’ hot shooting will make their defence evolve. The first two times these teams played, the Raptors’ 3-point shooters were struggling. “We're going to stay aggressive. They've been making shots. We've just got to see the game go and we're going to have to adjust.”

“Those two guys, their usage rates are very high and they have the ball in their hands a lot,” James said of DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. “So you can't really stop them. You've got to can contain them as much as possible. You've got to keep bodies in front of them. You've got to keep two bodies around them at all times. And just have great communication. It's an order for us to do that.”

The answer may be as simple as this: As long as the Raptors’ offence revolves around DeRozan and Lowry dominating the ball, opponents’ defences are going to try to stop them from being the main scorers, and live with the natural variance of 3-pointers. Because if this Raptors’ shooting spree does not make the Cavaliers adjust on the fly in the regular season, it is likely nothing will. (The playoffs, as always, are a different story.)

“They’re still going to double team (DeRozan). He’s a great scorer, especially one-on-one,” said DeMarre Carroll, who is shooting 55 percent from 3-point range over those last three games. “So you’ve got to send a double-team. It’s just our job to knock down the threes when we get the opportunities.”